Lifestage, Inc is a training and consulting company specializing in creative, experiential approaches to learning and change, including Applied Improvisation, storytelling, and action methods. We provide personal and professional development classes and workshops.

CANCELLATION POLICY: If Lifestage cancels an event for any reason, fees are refunded in full. Lifestage will refund the full fee to a participant who cancels up to 48 hours before the event. Within 48 hours of the event the fee less $25 will be refunded. Fees are not refunded for no-shows, but if pre-registered participants are unable to attend and contact Lifestage, their fees will be credited to a future event of their choice.

Lifestage workshops are richly informative and experiential in ways that rapidly connect everyone in the room and generate positive energy conducive to learning.

They are fun, which makes learning more likely to "stick."

Seriously, Fun."

We serve healthy snacks. And delicious coffee included in the registration fee.

Lifestage, Inc, SW CPE is recognized by the New York State Education Department's Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #0270. All the training workshops listed below are approved for Continuing Education hours for social workers.

IMPROV FOR EVERYONE is a monthly improvisation training group designed for improvisers of any level to come together and play improv games that the cultivate creative thinking, positive social-emotional connections and rich exploration of ideas. Each group features engaging exercises that warm us up to the state of play and generate a mindset for navigating the unknown with a spirit of fun and curiosity. We focus on generating the capacity to co-create grounded, organic, imaginative scenes, listen closely and tell stories together through Improvisation.This creative experience is a fun and fascinating way to become more spontaneous and open while making positive connections to other people. No experience with improvisation is required to enjoy and learn from these groups.

The Vaping Crisis: Skills and Knowledge For Effective Responding

This workshop will provide 4 CE hours for social workers approved by NYS

The vaping epidemic has created an immediate resource crisis for school and agency social workers, administrators, counselors and support staff. This workshop is specifically designed so that you walk away with a skillset that you can immediately implement at your school or agency. Alternatives to Suspension programming, directions for educational and fun group exercises, video clips, Power Point and handouts will be provided on a flash drive for your use. The skills learned in this workshop can be applied directly and immediately to practice.
Read more or register

Mental Health Benefits Of Improv Training

This workshop will provide 4 CE hours for social workers approved by NYS

Technology is evolving at an unprecedented rates, impacting family life, stress levels and the way we work. The skills and mindset learned through improvisation training are a unique, effective approach to strengthening the resilience and creative thinking skills that therapists and social workers can deploy to help clients, students and staff at our agencies navigate 21st century realities. A growing body of research shows that improv training directly relates to improved mental health and creative confidence that translates into real life empowerment. By learning the skills improvisers use to tell stories together without a script, anyone can learn to be more adaptable, agile, creative and spontaneous on the stage of life. Research shows that the ability to connect to other people face-to-face and truly engage with them is among the most powerful predictors of mental and physical health over the course of life, and improv training is among the most effective ways to promote it.
Read more or register

Creating A Climate For Communication in Science and Medicine Through Improvisation

Applied Improvisation is a creative method for getting very smart people who do important work to improve their ability to convey knowledge and expertise to the people impacted by it. But it is fundamentally a way to become better at all human interaction. In every area of life, we are always impacting and being impacted by others. Alan Alda - who provided the keynote address at the 2017 Applied Improvisation World Conference in Irvine, CA - created the Alan Alda Center For Communicating Science at Stonybrook University where he uses improv games and exercises he learned years ago to develop as an actor to train scientists, doctors and researchers to be more effective communicators. read article

HOW IMPROV PROMOTES THE POSITIVITY WE NEED RIGHT NOW

Improv occurs when a group of people- who may or may not have any deeper interpersonal connection beyond the creative collaboration-agree to support one another through a process of great uncertainty. To make that dynamic process even possible, improvisers must generate good will, humor, warmth and a high energy that drives spontaneity. If anyone is going to take a creative risk - which is, in the end, putting our ideas and our sense of self on the line and therefore a genuine emotional risk- there must an atmosphere of support and sense of trust. Improvisers develop the positive emotions through the action. It is real life writ large, with the interesting wrinkle that an authentically positive emotional climate is being manufactured. It is being orchestrated. And it works. read article

FRESH TAKE ON OLD BELIEFS THROUGH APPLIED IMPROVISATION

Beliefs-which can be inherited from family systems and cultural realities as much as formed by individual experience-are a powerful force shaping the way we frame and name experiences. Even when evidence exists that challenges false beliefs they can feel more real than, well, reality, which heightens their impact on mood and drives cycles of behavior. Applied Improvisation is an ideal way to learn skills for shifting out of counter-productive thoughts and beliefs. The basic idea of improvisation is that we are experimenting together, trying things out to see what takes shape, rather than sticking to a right/wrong, win/lose belief about how it all turns out. We can flounder and flail as we try to learn the principles and skills of improvisation, but enjoy ourselves the entire time. Learning and struggle can be fascinating and fun when we are thoroughly engaged and in a creative space with other people who are committed to the same process. Through improvisation we can loosen the rigid hold that deeply-held beliefs can have on our ability to think in fresh ways, because the emphasis is on the here-and-now and on approaching the same thing from different perspectives. read article